A packet insertion mechanism at the front end of a time-synchronized digital television transmission system multiplexes, along with standard packets, packets whose payload is to be transmitted with redundancy for added robustness. The multiplexer also inputs placeholder packets to accommodate duplicated content of the robust packets. Multiplexing of the robust and placeholder packets is configured to alternate and to interleave with the multiplexing of standard packets. The distribution of the robust packets within a frame is determined by the number of robust packets.
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1. A digital signal transmission apparatus comprising: a multiplexer having an output port, an input port for inputting an information bit-stream and an input port for inputting a placeholder bit-stream, for multiplexing the bit-streams inputted from the input ports to form a multiplexed bit-stream for output on the output port; a data formatter for receiving the multiplexed bit-stream and for replacing bits of said placeholder bit-stream within the received multiplexed bit-stream with bits derived from said information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream to form a modified bit-stream; an encoder for encoding the modified bit-stream to produce an encoded bit-stream; and a transmitter for transmitting the encoded bit-stream.
A digital signal transmission device includes a multiplexer that combines an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream into a single multiplexed bit-stream. A data formatter then replaces bits from the placeholder bit-stream within the multiplexed bit-stream with bits derived from the information bit-stream, creating a modified bit-stream. An encoder encodes this modified bit-stream, and finally, a transmitter sends the encoded bit-stream. This setup allows for later redundancy by replacing placeholders with information to improve robustness.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the deriving creates a new bit, but retains any bit from which derivation has occurred.
In the digital signal transmission device from the previous description, the process of deriving bits from the information bit-stream can create new bits or transform existing ones, but the original bits from which the derivation occurred are preserved. This likely refers to an encoding or processing step applied to the information bits before using them to replace the placeholder bits, allowing for data manipulation while retaining the original data.
3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein said replacing comprises duplicating bits of said information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream to form duplicate bits and substituting the duplicate bits to replace bits of said placeholder bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream.
Building upon the previous description, the data formatter creates "duplicate bits" by copying bits from the information bit-stream and uses these copies to substitute or overwrite the placeholder bits within the multiplexed bit-stream. So, information bits are duplicated, and the duplicates replace the placeholder bits. This implements a form of redundancy where the same information is transmitted multiple times, enhancing the signal's robustness.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multiplexer is configured to multiplex an additional bit-stream in forming said multiplexed bit-stream, the data formatter is configured to bypass said replacing when operating on said additional bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream to form said modified bit-stream, and the encoder is configured to process every bit of said modified bit-stream when operating on bits derived from said additional bit-stream and to process every other bit of said modified bit-stream when operating on bits derived from said information bit-stream.
The digital signal transmission device from the initial description also multiplexes an additional bit-stream alongside the information and placeholder bit-streams. The data formatter bypasses the replacing process when operating on the additional bit-stream; it doesn't replace placeholder bits with derived bits for this stream. The encoder processes every bit of the modified bit-stream derived from the additional bit-stream, but only processes every other bit of the modified bit-stream derived from the information bit-stream. This suggests a higher level of error correction or different processing applied to the additional bit-stream compared to the primary information stream.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the multiplexer is configured with an additional input port for inputting an additional bit-stream.
Expanding on the initial device description, the multiplexer includes an additional input port specifically designed for receiving an additional bit-stream. This implies the ability to handle more than just information and placeholder bit-streams, allowing for potentially different types of data or control signals to be incorporated into the transmission.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , the multiplexer being configured to input a plurality of additional bit-streams, a plurality of information bit-streams and a plurality of placeholder bit-streams through their respective input ports for said multiplexing to form said multiplexed bit-stream, each of the information bit-streams to be multiplexed by the multiplexer having an identical number of bits, each of the placeholder bit-streams to be multiplexed by the multiplexer having an identical number of bits, the multiplexer being configured to multiplex each of the information and placeholder bit-streams for their respective identical number of bits before selecting another bit-stream for multiplexing.
The multiplexer has multiple input ports for various bit-streams: multiple additional bit-streams, multiple information bit-streams, and multiple placeholder bit-streams. Each information bit-stream has the same number of bits, and each placeholder bit-stream also has the same number of bits. The multiplexer processes each information and placeholder bit-stream for its entire block of bits before switching to another bit-stream. This design facilitates the combination of multiple data streams into a unified signal.
7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein said multiplexer is further configured to perform said multiplexing so as to select in succession, over a predetermined number of bit-streams, no more than three of said additional bit-streams.
Further building on the multi-stream multiplexing description, the multiplexer is configured to select no more than three of the additional bit-streams in succession during a predetermined sequence of bit-streams. This constraint limits the burst of additional bit-streams, preventing them from dominating the multiplexed output and maintaining a balance with the other bit-stream types.
8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said multiplexer is further configured to perform said multiplexing so as to input in succession one or more of the additional bit-streams after each input of one of an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream.
In the multi-stream multiplexing context, the device inputs one or more of the additional bit-streams after each input of either an information bit-stream or a placeholder bit-stream. This ensures that the additional bit-streams are interleaved with the core information and placeholder data, maintaining a balanced flow of different data types within the multiplexed signal.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the plural bit-streams are identical in length, and the inputting of one of an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream successively alternates, over at least most inputs of the one information or placeholder bit-stream, between an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream.
With the multi-stream setup, all the bit-streams being multiplexed are the same length. The selection of either an information bit-stream or a placeholder bit-stream alternates for nearly all inputs. It creates a repeating sequence where information and placeholder streams alternate, ensuring a consistent pattern for redundancy.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said replacing comprises removing selected bits from said information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream and substituting the removed bits to replace bits of said placeholder bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream.
In the initial digital signal transmission device, the data formatter selects bits from the information bit-stream, removes those selected bits and uses the removed bits to replace bits within the placeholder bit-stream. This approach involves directly substituting information bits for placeholder bits, implementing redundancy by retransmitting specific parts of the original information.
11. A digital signal transmission method comprising: multiplexing an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream to form a multiplexed bit-stream; receiving the multiplexed bit-stream; replacing bits of said placeholder bit-stream within the received multiplexed bit-stream with bits derived from said information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream to form a modified bit-stream; encoding the modified bit-stream to produce an encoded bit-stream; and transmitting the encoded bit-stream.
A digital signal transmission process involves combining an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream into a multiplexed bit-stream. Then bits from the placeholder bit-stream within the combined bit-stream are replaced with bits derived from the information bit-stream creating a modified bit-stream. The modified bit-stream is then encoded. Finally, the encoded bit-stream is transmitted.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the deriving creates a new bit, but retains any bit from which derivation has occurred.
This method uses a deriving step that can create new bits, but retains any bit from which derivation has occurred. This likely refers to an encoding or processing step applied to the information bits before using them to replace the placeholder bits, allowing for data manipulation while retaining the original data.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the replacing comprises: duplicating bits of said information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream to form duplicate bits; and substituting the duplicate bits to replace bits of said placeholder bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream.
Building on the previous method, the replacing step comprises duplicating bits of said information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream to form duplicate bits and substituting the duplicate bits to replace bits of said placeholder bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream. So, information bits are duplicated, and the duplicates replace the placeholder bits. This implements a form of redundancy where the same information is transmitted multiple times, enhancing the signal's robustness.
14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: multiplexing an additional bit-stream in forming said multiplexed bit-stream; and bypassing said replacing step when operating on said additional bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream to form said modified bit-stream; wherein said encoding further comprises: processing every bit of said modified bit-stream when operating on bits derived from said additional bit-stream; and processing every other bit of said modified bit-stream when operating on bits derived from said information bit-stream.
The method described is expanded by multiplexing an additional bit-stream during the initial bit-stream combining step. The replacing step is skipped when handling the additional bit-stream. The encoding processes every bit of the modified bit-stream when processing bits originating from the additional bit-stream, while only processing every other bit when handling bits originating from the primary information bit-stream. This means the additional stream has different error correction, potentially.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the multiplexing further comprises multiplexing an additional bit-stream to form said multiplexed bit-stream.
The digital signal transmission method now includes multiplexing an additional bit-stream during the initial multiplexing to form the multiplexed bit-stream. This allows for the inclusion of different types of data or control signals within the transmitted signal.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein said multiplexing comprises multiplexing a plurality of additional bit-streams, a plurality of information bit-streams, and a plurality of placeholder bit-streams to form said multiplexed bit-stream, each of said information bit-streams to be multiplexed by the multiplexer having an identical number of bits, each of said placeholder bit-streams to be multiplexed by the multiplexer having an identical number of bits, the multiplexing step being performed so as to multiplex each of the information and placeholder bit-streams for their respective identical number of bits before selecting another bit-stream for multiplexing.
The multiplexing step involves combining multiple additional bit-streams, multiple information bit-streams, and multiple placeholder bit-streams to create the final multiplexed output. All information bit-streams have the same number of bits, and all placeholder bit-streams have the same number of bits. The process fully multiplexes one stream (information or placeholder) for its entire length before moving on to the next stream.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein said multiplexing is performed so as to select in succession, over a predetermined number of bit-streams, no more than three of said additional bit-streams.
In the multi-stream multiplexing method, the process selects a maximum of three additional bit-streams consecutively during the multiplexing sequence. This limits the duration of additional bit-streams within the overall data, ensuring balance between the different types of data.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein the multiplexing multiplexes so as to input in succession one or more of the additional bit-streams after each input of one of an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream.
The multiplexing method combines one or more of the additional bit-streams after each insertion of either an information or a placeholder bit-stream. This interleaves the additional data streams with the main data, providing a balanced distribution of different data types throughout the signal.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the plural bit-streams are identical in length, and the inputting of one of an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream successively alternates, over at least most inputs of the one information or placeholder bit-stream, between an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream.
The multi-stream transmission method employs plural bit-streams of identical length. The process alternates between an information bit-stream and a placeholder bit-stream for most of the inputs. This establishes a regular pattern for interleaving the main information with redundancy placeholder bits.
20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the replacing comprises: selecting bits from said information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream; removing the selected bits from said information bit-stream within said multiplexed bit-stream; and substituting the removed bits to replace bits of said placeholder bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream.
The replacing step selects bits from the information bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream; removing the selected bits from said information bit-stream within said multiplexed bit-stream; and substituting the removed bits to replace bits of said placeholder bit-stream within said received multiplexed bit-stream.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
September 1, 2003
August 6, 2013
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